A media release from February 7 2019, has come back to haunt the current Member for Goulburn Wendy Tuckerman. Released on Facebook by then outgoing Member for Goulburn Pru Goward, the statement is captioned as “*BREAKING** NSW Government to deliver top quality drinking water to Yass residents – with Wendy Tuckerman MP in Yass, NSW.”
However, Yass is still waiting to receive ‘top quality drinking water’ just weeks before residents are asked to go to the booths to cast their vote again as to who may actually see through such a promise and deliver on it. With 4 years between elections, it’s getting on close to half a decade and little has been done by the incumbent after the media release was no doubt designed to sway voters in the Yass catchment into backing the coalition just before the election.
There was apparently $1 billion worth of funding available from what the statement said was the NSW Liberals and Nationals flagship $1 billion Safe and Secure Water infrastructure program, which should have really been titled the taxpayers of NSW funding for potable water program.
When it gets down to it, all Government spending is with resident’s money collected by the relevant departments to deliver infrastructure for the people of NSW.
It looks like with just weeks to go, Yass won’t be getting any money unless there is a huge double-barrel backflip with a pike by Tuckerman and the Government or Labor makes a larger commitment and if elected sticks to it.
The lack of action on water over the last few decades and more importantly the last 4 years culminated in a substantial crowd and four of the nine Yass Valley councillors making an appearance at the Water Rally held in Yass on Saturday. Local residents are hoping that the rally is an instigator for action and change.
Yass Valley Council says that the water is safe for consumption, despite its brown appearance, which often comes with a foul smell also.
Yass Council appears hamstrung regarding the water quality with the town’s internal infrastructure of piping coming to its end of life.
Alongside this, the treatment works would most aptly be described as past its end of life.
Labor candidate Michael Pilbrow said, “I thank the organisers for bringing the community together to raise your voice about the state of Yass water. Yass needs a safe and secure water supply.
I came to the rally to listen and to feed back the community’s concerns to our NSW Labor Leader, Chris Minns, and our Shadow Minister for Water, Rose Jackson.
We are working on our approach in close consultation with the Yass Valley Council.
As Chris Minns says, when we make commitments, we want to be held accountable.
If I have the honour of being elected as your next Member for the State Electorate of Goulburn and the community wants to talk about water, I will turn up.”
Yass local Bec Duncan was scathing of the current Government’s approach, she attended the rally and spoke. She said, “In 1956, Yass was the first town in NSW to have fluoride added to the town’s water supply. Fluoride wasn’t added to Sydney water until 12 years later – in 1968. I sometimes wonder whether it was added to our water so much earlier because our water was SO BAD that they tried to camouflage it with whatever they could.
And that’s what successive Governments have been doing ever since. Camouflaging undrinkable and unusable water with piecemeal and short-term solutions. Tiny investments to placate us, to pacify us, for another few years to get them through to the next election.
The fact that we are even here today, fighting for something as basic as clean drinking water in Australia – is a disgrace.”
With the seat of Goulburn sitting on just over a 3% margin, Bec continued, “I once thought that if we were no longer a safe conservative seat – once those votes were harder fought, those margins were smaller – that our elected representatives who did win Government would show us some love. But I was wrong. Dead wrong.
Decades of neglect and inaction leave us in the unenviable position of begging for our basic human rights.”
The quality of the water has also prevented more people moving into Yass, something clear on the Facebook responses to the rally when one person commented along the lines that they were ‘glad they didn’t move there.’
But the water quality isn’t only affecting settlement, it is affecting health outcomes. Bec stated, “Do you know why other towns our size – like Young, Forbes, Cowra, Tumut, Deniliquin and others – can all offer renal dialysis at their local hospitals and we can’t? …..Because of our water. It isn’t safe. Doctors won’t let our water be pumped into the human body because it would make the person sicker than they already are. Our hardworking long-suffering people that require dialysis can’t get that essential, life saving treatment here, BECAUSE of our water. …..There are good decent beautiful families in this town travelling hours and hours each week, to Canberra, to Queanbeyan, 3 or 4 days a week just to keep their loved ones alive.”
MP Wendy Tuckerman released a statement on Sunday post the Water Rally, outlining the project plan.
She said, “The NSW Government’s commitment to completing the Yass Water Project remains firm – but a Liberal Government will ensure that the project is delivered without fears of cost blowouts, underestimates or wastage,” Tuckerman said.
“Let’s be clear. At the last election, Yass Valley Council said it was going to take $10 million to fix the problem. As the local Member, I secured this funding, and Stage One of the project has already been completed.
“However, for an investment decision to be made by the NSW Government a robust business case is required, and this involves properly evaluating the options and the costs associated. This work is now underway and early indications are that the project costs will exceed the initial $10 million that Council estimated at the time of the election by more than 200%.”
Tuckerman understands Local Government and water. She is a former longstanding Councillor at Boorowa and then Hilltops and also spent time on the Goldenfields Water County Council as a Board Member. Goldenfields provides water to the east of Yass at Harden and as far west as Barellan, Oura near Wagga, Ungarie – north west of WestWyalong and other large towns such as Young, Junee, Temora and Cootamundra. She is also the Member for Local Government, so any issues with lack of performance by the Council to provide a business case should have been dealt with by her.
On Sunday, Tuckerman explained her position regarding Yass water. She posted to her Facebook page a lengthy statement.
She said, “As the Local Member, I have ensured that $3.7 million of the allocated funds were immediately unlocked for improvements to the existing plant, to provide improvements to Yass residents in the short term. If it was not for my hard work in getting NSW Water and Yass Council together to agree on implementation of Stage 1 – a year after being awarded the money from the election commitment – we would not have seen ANY progress.
Council also has a pipe network contributing to a substandard delivery (and discolouration) of the water, yet, I have not seen any commitment from Yass Councillors to gain an understanding of where the source of the problem is coming from and their plans to replace and maintain this pipe network.
There have been plenty of funding opportunities for Councils (for instance the Accelerated Infrastructure Fund with successful projects for Round 3 announced just this week). Yass Valley Council did not apply for the expansion of Yass water treatment plant. Council has not applied for funding to replace the aging pipe network.
The community is being continually let down by the lack of planning on this and other issues. There has been no shortage of funds that council can apply for and please note Council still have $6.3M from the last commitment that hasn’t been spent.
Other Councils in my electorate have done the work and their communities are benefiting.”
Residents of Yass did not take this statement lightly, nor did former Council employees.
Yass Valley Council’s former Director of Infrastructure and Assets, James Dugdell, responded to Tuckerman’s public statement online. He said, “After spending the last two years arguing with DPE (Water) on the way forward, and having had to conduct a Peer Review of the original design before progressing with a tiny fraction of the works asked for and needed, it is very disappointing to see the Local Member pushing this back on Council,” Dugdell said.
“DPE (Water) were still claiming that the works that were completed in 2022 will fix the water quality when Council’s Designer and the Peer Reviewer both stated that the Stage 1 Works will not fix the water quality issues. Time and money was wasted to meet the demands of DPE(Water) again and again. No funds were immediately unlocked. They took considerable time.
“Those two years were spend (sic) arguing with DPE(Water) to continue the design works as fast as possible but only an agreement to use a small amount of funding which was already allocated to “Council (The HAF has already allocated $10m for Yass Water Supply) to complete further design works focused on WHS and Water Security (storage, environmental management, ancient electrical systems, etc), which will not address the water quality Issues, was reached in late 2022, early 2023. I would have got to the pipes but arguing about the simple need to upgrade the plant, so it did not stop working took all my staff’s time.
“DPE (Water) were still arguing that 12 months additional testing after the completion of the Stage 1 Works was required to prove that the water quality was not up to standard before supporting any further design works for improvements to water quality would be agreed and thus could be subject to grant applications.
“This has delayed Council using already allocated funding to do what is needed and will only further slow down the process. If DPE(Water) had agreed with the need for additional works, as highlighted by two different expert water process designers, back in 2021 then the design works would be completed so Council could apply for the additional grants as you have quite nicely pointed out.
“You need to get DPE(Water) to allow Council to progress with what is needed and not get in the way. The delay all sits with the State Government and DPE(Water). Your post is very disappointing and belies the work that the Council Staff have done to try and fight through DPE(Water). You know that Council can not apply for grants without planning and business cases and with DPE(Water) thwarting Council staff at every turn it was a very frustrating two years.”
Others responded to Tuckerman’s response with Bec Duncan chiming in again. “Soooo, should we complain to the Minister for Local Government…? Oh wait, that’s you!
Throwing Council under the bus for a State Government responsibility is not edifying and is certainly not meeting your election commitment, nor does it meet your responsibilities as the Minister responsible for that very Council.”
Others took the opportunity to speak out on Council’s performance on various projects. Stephanie Helm said, Yass Valley Council certainly has a lot of explaining to do on a range of issues. It’s also time for them to stop pushing responsibility back onto the community to source funding for incomplete projects and facilities.” While another, Anne Miller, took aim at Council for another internal issue. She said, “These excuses are sounding eerily like 3+ year argument with YVC and you (Dugdell) in particular about the lack of fitness of sand the Council insisted on for Murrumbateman equestrian arenas. Still not fixed! We need a Council that is solution focussed, stops blaming everyone else and meets community needs.
Ross Webster, former Yass Valley Councillor between 1991-1999 and former Landcare President and Vice-President of Yass Area Network, attended the water rally on Saturday and agreed with Dugdell’s comments and hopes the rally will create some significant change.
“It went very well, I thought all the speakers added something to the debate. The roll up wasn’t too bad, I thought that might have been a few more there considering the number of complaints we get about the water on Facebook,” Webster said.
“I was on the Council when we made the decision to raise the weir wall.
“Hopefully we will get an outcome from the rally. It is one of the biggest issues facing the shire, especially in coming years.
“I see there’s been a comment made by the former Shire engineer Dugdell in regard to our incumbent Local Member’s comments, and I’d like to see it right at the front in the lead up to the election.
“I think people are fed up with promises made by politicians and aren’t carried through. The MP said it was all Council’s fault, that they hadn’t made a case for the next lot of grant money. We are a small Council; I think we’d have to employ a consultant to write such a business case.
“They’ve known for a long time all the factors that lead to the degradation of our river, and why the water quality is so bad.
“I was up at Burrinjuck Dam last week at it is woeful. It’s nearly like pea soup. You’ve only got to go out there at the moment and see the blue-green algae because they can’t take all the nitrogen and phosphorus out of the treatment, so once you get a bit of warm weather, there’s a big algae bloom.
“Our first choice all those years ago was to hook onto Canberra because of the quality of water they have got, out of the Cotter River, Googong Dam and have an allocation from Snowy if they ever need it.
“The ACT Government negotiated with us for a little while, before they pulled the pin on it. The water quality in Canberra is first class, unlike Yass, our water quality is getting worse because of the development within the upper catchment, as soon as we get a drought and heavy rainfall, it comes down so toxic.”
With just over 4 weeks to go until residents get their chance to vote on the next Member for Goulburn, when it comes to water they have a question to ask themselves. Who will deliver clean potable water for Yass, and which party?
There are a number of responses. Is it one of the major parties? The coalition hasn’t delivered anything of substance and now appears to be blaming the elected representatives of Yass Council and therefore the Yass community itself. Will Labor make an announcement and if so will they deliver or not? Will it be enough money to solve the problem knowing that the pipe infrastructure is in a terrible state of affairs also? Will the Feds save the day? Who knows?
Take a drink of the water and maybe trust your gut come March 25.
